GUIDO REY (1861-1935), THE LETTER vintage photogravure, plate 118, Vol. 24, Camera Work , 1908, 8 x 6 in., Condition: Excellent. FBR-0001

CONDITION: For a condition report, please email info@ethertongallery.com.

Frames when illustrated, are for reference ONLY and are NOT included with the lot. Please note that the color and tonality of digital references may vary. Titles, dates, details and descriptions are for guidance only and are subject to change.

A deliberate homage to an earlier artistic style that Guido Rey admired, the composition derives from a painting made by Dutch artist Jan Vermeer in the 1600s. In this posed scene, a young suitor bearing flowers approaches a woman seated at her writing desk, with her pen poised in mid-air as she turns to greet him. A leaded glass window opens into her room, providing a natural light source for the photograph's illumination. The mounted corner clock, decorative jar on the desk, and painting on the wall were Rey's everyday household items or objects borrowed from friends, carefully chosen for period accuracy. Likewise, a seamstress who lived in the attic of Rey's home in Turin created the costumes to his specifications.

GUIDO REY

Guido Rey's adventures as a mountaineer led to his photographic career. In 1893, following several successful climbs and a book about his mountain-climbing experiences, he began to photograph mountain peaks, earning a silver medal from the Italian Alpine Club. He later went on to compose Greek and Roman classical compositions in the Pictorialist style, researching the Pompeii excavations and visiting the museums of Naples in order to insure accuracy in his depictions. Called "without a doubt the best Italian art photographer" by a contemporary, Rey began to make composite images based on Old Master painters, particularly in the Dutch School style of Pieter de Hooch and Jan Vermeer. After Rey made a business trip to the United States, Alfred Stieglitz published his photographs in the influential journal Camera Work in 1908. Writing about the debate over the artistic merit of photography in 1902, Rey proclaimed:

It would seem that in the end a breath of art had finally fallen on the much dishonored child of Daguerre...After a thousand trials, photography has acquired a new consciousness of the noble heights it might obtain, and it now seems near an ideal of beauty long since abandoned.

www.getty.edu

Excellent

8 x 6 in